[OOC] ---

[Jabber]

---

[Jabber]

With 3-4 participants, I can start this.

[Zero Hex]

Potentially interested

[Jabber]

@Zero Hex Good to hear. Currently I'm reviewing 3 character applications. Still working out some kinks with them, so as of now, I'm still accepting.

[Zeroth]

@Jabber

If our characters become approved after the PM process, should we post them in the Char tab, or will you be posting the list of approved characters?

[Jabber]

@Zeroth Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you. Feel free to post your CS in the Character Tab.

[Jabber]

@Great Sogeking By the way, you can add another ability to your character, but it should be cooking-based or at least something related to his dream of owning multiple restaurants.

@MacDuffy I was thinking of giving your character a strength-based trait for the whole massive sword swinging adventures he's gonna have. Or you might have some other suggestion?

[MacDuffy]

A trait for like, being Super Stronk? Yeah, I'm good for that.

[Hantu Kongkek]

I'm interested but have to leave in three weeks for about a month. Do you guys have room for a navigator?

[Great Sogeking]

I can think of only one suitable ability in that case.

[Zeroth]

@Jabber

Added Zehst to the Characters list.

So Traits will be something that we accumulate over time, or that are rewarded? Are they like extra abilities or just character descriptors?

[Great Sogeking]

Aaaaaaaaand ability added.

"Exquisite Grilled Cuisine"

[Jabber]

@Hantu Kongkek That's a long time. Maybe when you get back?

@Great Sogeking The ability to mass produce fast food in a matter of seconds, huh? Reasonable enough.

@Zeroth Yeah, rewards or something you just get based on the story.

[Jabber]

Guys, I need your comments on something. Is everyone fine without using some sort of system to quantify the power levels of characters?

[Player 2]

I'd be fine with that, yeah. I tend to lean towards going with the flow in that regard.

[Zobozun]

Depends on the system, really. I'm a big fan of Savage Worlds and ORE, personally, but I know a lot of freeformers aren't fans of dice systems. A really light system like Risus or Wushu Open is generally the most coherent you can get going on a site like this. Actually, if I had to suggest a system for battle manga-type games it'd likely be Wushu, since it's one of the few systems that actively disregard powerlevels and the laws of physics in favor of doing as much cool stuff as possible.

As far as homebrew stuff goes generally I've found a hard-and-fast this-beats-that sort of thing rarely works well and generally runs counter to the "powerlevels are bullshit" nature of SHONEN BATTERU-type things. Homebrew systems that add an element of chance, on the other hand, tend to needlessly bog things down in a forum environment and make players afraid to do really stupid shit, which is something of an issue becuase doing really stupid shit is pretty much what One Piece is built on. That, and I've seen a lot of them end up being horrendously broken in the worst possible ways.

So basically what I'm saying is in a game like this you may be better off starting with an honor system where you trust your players to focus more on making things enjoyable for everyone and doing cool shit instead of being weird freeform tryhards obsessed with winning and ending fights as fast as possible. That's just me, though.

EDIT: Upon scrolling back up I think I misread what you were saying but my point still stands I guess.

[Scallop]

Just curious, but is this still open? if so are you accepting any Devil Fruit users?

[Zeroth]

Guys, I need your comments on something. Is everyone fine without using some sort of system to quantify the power levels of characters?

@Jabber

I'm fine with the honor system unless people start doing things that are really overpowered. Maybe use the Traits as a way of letting people know when they're progressing--for instance, if someone earns a trait like "Enhanced Durability," they're just tougher than a normal person. By the time they work their way up to "Immense Durability," maybe they're like Zoro and can take enormous amounts of punishment and lose 9/10ths of the blood in their body and still be fine.

[Jabber]

I guess we're going with the honor system.

@Scallop The RP is practically full but feel free to send in a CS. I could make an exception or if not, at least I could inform you once a slot opens up.

[Pacifista]

My two cents on the power levels: I recall trying something in a One Piece game ages ago with power levels. I'm not saying we should use it but I'll share my experiences and you can decide.

Basically, the game had three main crews on one island, and to help sort out any potential PvP worries I attempted to implement something from the series. Basically, everyone had a power level descriptor that explained how strong they were relative to the other PCs. These were Captain (the strongest, such as Luffy), Monster (Zoro, Sanji), Medium (Franky, Brooke) and Low (Ussop, Nami). I think I remember coming up with this after taking part in a game in which I felt like four or five players in the crew seemed to want their characters to be Monsters (even though we weren't using the system).

In theory, it was meant to balance out crew strength, but in practice no one wanted their character to be 'Low' as you could imagine, and looking at the current cast maaaaybe Claribel would be Low I guess (but she could just as easily be medium)?

Of course, chances are it'll evolve naturally anyway, just like we can figure the relative strengths of the Straw Hats to each other after considering Enies Lobby and Alabasta, since their opponents had their own ranking system.